


This Poisoned Cup

by misura



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Manipulation, No Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 22:30:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19029253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "I cannot promise you your freedom,"the Regent had said."But for a few hours, at least, I might grant you an opportunity to show my nephew that actions have consequences, and that he does not yet rule."





	This Poisoned Cup

_"My nephew stands in need of a firm, guiding hand,"_ the Regent had said. _"I had hopes that you might provide one,"_ and Damen had bent his head, feeling shamed and said, _"I am his slave."_

The Regent had sighed then, regretful, the picture of a man forced to face an uncomfortable, distasteful truth. Damen had hoped for nothing: as much as he might dislike it, he _was_ a slave. To free him would mean to risk the peace.

 _"I cannot promise you your freedom,"_ the Regent had said. _"But for a few hours, at least, I might grant you an opportunity to show my nephew that actions have consequences, and that he does not yet rule. Will you accept that? I ask you, not as a man to a slave, but as a loving uncle to a man of courage and honor."_

Damen had not been able to conceive of a way to teach Laurent anything, let alone in a few hours, rather than days or weeks. Still, he had been touched by the Regent's obvious distress; he had nodded.

And so, this.

 

Until the guards had delivered him to Laurent's bedroom, Damen had not quite realized what 'this' would be. Even after they had opened the door for him, he found it hard to accept the situation as what it was, to accept that what the Regent had offered him was not revenge, but rape.

It would be a kind of revenge, he supposed. Laurent had threatened him with it, had, in fact, almost succeeded with that scene in the ring.

This was a court where people were raped for sport, for entertainment. This was Vere.

Laurent looked at him, as he came in. His expression was surprised, then cold. "I don't remember having sent for you."

The guards had removed Damen's chains. Laurent must have noticed their lack, must be aware that something was wrong. "You didn't," Damen said. He remembered the perfection of Laurent's body in the baths, the pale, soft skin, the perfect proportions of Laurent's cock.

Amusement, now. "I would have thought you valued your freedom more highly."

Laurent, Damen realized, thought that Damen had escaped. "Perhaps you misjudged me," he said, because admitting that he was _not_ free would be giving Laurent a weapon.

"Perhaps I did," Laurent agreed. "Are you here to kill me, then?"

Killing him would be clean, at least. Perhaps, if Laurent held a sword and Damen remained weaponless, it might even be considered a fair fight.

His own death would not be as clean, of course - and even the Regent would not be able to save him, Damen thought, if he were to kill Laurent here and now. Offering a man a chance to rape your unruly nephew was one thing; permitting him to kill him was another.

In fact, there was a good chance that if Damen used this opportunity to kill Laurent, it would mean the end of the Regent's life as well. It had been his guards who had delivered Damen here, after all. People would undoubtedly ask questions.

Damen swallowed.

"Need some time to work up the nerve?" Laurent asked, his voice bright. "Or is it just that the question was too difficult? I did use one-syllable words, but then again, you're not very smart, are you?"

 _Smart enough to know that killing you would be a mistake,_ Damen thought. What would the Regent's guards do, if he were to leave now? "I'm not here to kill you," he said.

For one moment, there was something else in Laurent's expression. Something almost human, and vulnerable. Something Damen might have mistaken for fear.

The next moment, it was gone, and Laurent was Laurent again, cool and in control, leaving Damen to wonder if he had only imagined things.

"What are you here for, then?" Laurent asked. "My charming company? A bedtime story?"

 _Your uncle sent me to rape you._ But that wasn't true, was it? Damen had agreed, after all. _A lesson._ It was said, in Vere, that Akielons trained their pleasure slaves by raping them, that what happened in training schools was barbarous and disgusting.

Damen had denied the stories. He had never taken an unwilling slave to his bed, and the idea of doing so was worse than repugnant: it was unthinkable. No pleasure slave would ever refuse service without good reason, and no owner would force a slave to perform against their will.

"Would you like me to tell you what I'll have done to you once they catch you?" Laurent said. "My uncle won't be as eager to protect you now, I think. He'll let me do whatever I want."

Laurent was not a pleasure slave. Laurent was vicious and cruel, with the mind of a viper. Beautiful, yet poisonous. Bedding him would be a pleasure only so long as he didn't speak.

Damen felt his mouth go dry at the mental image of how he might make sure of that. Of Laurent, on his knees in front of him, staring up at Damen as he parted his lips and slowly took in Damen's cock.

Laurent would be inexperienced, a little sloppy, but his beauty and the pleasure of his submission would more than make up for it. Damen's hands would be buried in his golden hair, holding him in place as Damen would begin to fuck that mouth, to put it to the use for which it had been intended by nature.

Of course, it was only a fantasy. In reality, Damen wouldn't put it past Laurent to bite him. In fact, that seemed the far more likely outcome of such a situation, assuming he were able to arrange it in the first place.

"If I'd known you enjoyed them so much, I would have been more sparing in my punishments," Laurent said, back to sounding coolly amused, and Damen realized that he'd become hard, and that his arousal was showing, obvious in the clothing the Regent's guards had provided him with.

"Would you?" Damen asked, struggling to clear his head.

"Perhaps not. I enjoyed them too, after all. Particularly when you started screaming and weeping. I enjoyed that rather a lot." Laurent smiled. "I was glad you didn't break too soon, though. That would have been boring."

Damen's body moved almost before he'd made a conscious decision to do so. Laurent's doing, though Damen did not think his reaction was quite what Laurent had intended.

Laurent's mistake lay in his acting as if he still held all the power, as if all it would take to bring a number of guards running would be for Laurent to cry out. Damen knew better.

Damen did not, he realized, particularly want to enlighten Laurent to this fact. Much more satisfying to let Laurent discover it for himself, to wait for the moment when Laurent would decide he'd tired of playing with Damen and watch as the realization that no guards were coming slowly dawned on him.

Laurent's left hand went to his belt, to the knife that hung there, sheathed. Damen slapped his hand away, then removed the belt and threw it to the other end of the room, for good measure.

"If you stop this now, and submit to your proper punishment, I might refrain from killing you," Laurent said. His voice still sounded cool, but there was a flush to his face. Damen had him pressed up against the wall, surprised to find Laurent's body more hard than soft, though not in the one place where it would have truly surprised him.

"Very generous," Damen replied. He had expected his own arousal to diminish, now that Laurent was so close. He was dismayed to find that it had not, that part of him rather relished the sensation of having Laurent at his mercy, or nearly so.

It was that same part of him that pointed out that he had already removed Laurent's belt, and that it would be a matter of seconds to strip Laurent fully, to truly put him at Damen's mercy - and what mercy could anyone have, for someone like Laurent? His own uncle, a man of wisdom and near-infinite patience and kindness, had sent Damen here: was that not all the proof required that Laurent deserved anything Damen might wish to do to him?

"You lied to me," Laurent said. "I suppose I should have expected that."

Damen laughed. He could not help himself. His body ground itself against Laurent's, in some parody of passion, of the kind of slow love-making Damen might have enjoyed with a willing companion, with both of them too eager to wish to wait for a bed.

Laurent grimaced. "If you're waiting for me to swoon at your manliness, you're in for a long wait."

Any sign of distress, Damen thought, might have stopped him even then. He was aroused, yes, but regardless of Laurent's opinion, he was not an animal. He was a man, and men controlled their desire.

He pressed his lips to Laurent's, which were stiff and closed, unwelcoming. Laurent's eyes remained open during what could hardly be called a kiss. Damen forced himself to keep looking at Laurent, to watch for any indication that Laurent was afraid of him, of this.

He could not remember when he had made the decision to take this all the way, to take Laurent, if Laurent would not swallow his pride and ask him to stop, one man to another, rather than master to slave. If nothing else, it would give him some satisfaction in the weeks to come, when he would face Laurent in public, with Laurent a prince and Damen a slave once more.

Laurent's clothes were easy enough to remove, provided one did not care about damaging them. Laurent made no sound whatsoever as Damen threw them on the floor, holding Laurent in place with his right arm as he stepped back to take in the view, to savor the moment.

"In need of instructions? I fear I am not in a teaching mood just now," Laurent said. His blonde hair was slightly disheveled already. "Though I suppose, if you were to strip and call in a couple of guards, I might find some inspiration."

 _The guards outside are your uncle's,_ Damen did not say. _They will not help you._

Laurent stilled, suddenly, as if he had read the thought off of Damen's expression. "Oh," he said, sounding almost human, almost as if he were a young man, discovering for the first time that the rest of the world did not move according to his whim.

"I - " Damen said, barely knowing how to go on. _I won't hurt you,_ would be absurd, even if it were true. _I won't rape you,_ perhaps, though he knew as well as Laurent did that it had been a close thing - was, still, a close thing.

"Whatever he's promised you, you won't get it," Laurent said. "He'll have you executed. I'll watch. They'll probably torture you for a bit first. I'll watch that, too. The first thing he'll have them take is your tongue, to keep you from talking."

Damen felt ill. _Your uncle is a man of honor, and he loves you more than you deserve._ He wondered how anyone's mind could be so twisted, so incapable of seeing what was plain even to a newcomer like Damen.

Laurent smiled at him. "Still going through with this? Would you like me to lie down, or will this right here do? It will probably take you days to die; I wouldn't want you to feel like it wasn't worth it."

Damen had intended to go slow, to give Laurent every opportunity to save himself. A waste of time, he now realized. Laurent would no more save himself than his uncle would stop hoping he might yet be salvaged and turned into one fit to rule.

He positioned Laurent to face the wall, aware that he was being rough, and angry. Laurent deserved this, deserved worse than this, in fact, but Damen would only compromise his own honor so far. He took some of the oil the guards had provided him with, to prepare Laurent's entrance.

Laurent said nothing, which was a first, and a blessing. Damen did not like to think of what he might have done, had Laurent pushed his temper even further. His own cock was still hard, though desire was the last thing he felt for Laurent in this moment, even with Laurent's body on display as it was.

Any fantasies he might have entertained about Laurent pleasing him willingly had vanished. They would never become reality, any more than Laurent's prediction of his uncle's actions would. Laurent was just an unpleasant, sadistic young man who deserved a lesson.

Laurent's entrance was tight, and hot even if the rest of him was not. With anyone else, Damen might have taken longer to prepare them; with Laurent, he saw no reason not to give in to his impatience. It would hurt Laurent, yes, but that would only make the lesson more likely to stick.

Damen pushed himself inside nearly to the hilt, the oil easing his passage somewhat, yet not so much that he imagined Laurent did not experience any discomfort. Laurent still kept quiet, as if silence was the only weapon that remained to him now.

If so, Damen intended to take it from him, as he had taken the knife. He began to move, slowly at first, more his own sake than Laurent's, savoring the feeling of sinking into the tight heat of Laurent's body before pulling out again and starting over. He felt his desire to go faster build and build, until he gave in and began to take Laurent in earnest, striving towards a climax.

Laurent made a sound only when Damen reached one of his hands around to stroke Laurent's still flaccid cock. It was a soft sound, more whimper than moan. Damen supposed it might have bothered him for Laurent to deny him this last small victory, but he refused to let Laurent's pettiness spoil the moment for him. For all the coolness of Laurent's character, his body had clearly been made for pleasure, and Damen intended to take his fill of it. He would likely never get another chance, after all.

He could not get Laurent to come before he did himself, and so abandoned the effort as he felt his own climax wash over him, spilling his seed while still buried within Laurent's body. It felt a little shameful, to realize that the encounter had lasted less than half an hour and yet had been more memorable, more intense than any before. 

As he pulled out, Damen tried to feel satisfaction, pride in having wrested this much from Laurent at least. Instead, he felt frustrated, as if Laurent's silence and lack of pleasure had spoilt what had clearly been a victory for Damen.

The Regent had been wrong, he thought. Damen had not been able to teach Laurent a lesson: Laurent was unteachable.

"Are you done?" Laurent asked, his voice as tightly controlled as ever. He stood as Damen had put him, facing the wall rather than Damen.

"Yes," Damen said. Absurdly, he wanted to apologize. With anyone else, he would have felt ashamed of his selfishness, his lack of stamina, his failure to give as much pleasure as he had taken.

"My uncle will be pleased." Laurent turned, walking over to where Damen had thrown his clothes and started putting them on again. "You can go now," he added, without looking at Damen. "I doubt that he's expecting you to do it twice."

There was a knife, still, on the floor. Two guards at the door, armed, but not expecting an escape attempt. They had swords. If Damen was quick, so would he, very shortly.

"Thinking of escaping? You could have tried that earlier. It would have saved me some inconvenience," Laurent said. "Why would I give my knife to someone who just raped me?"

"I don't need you to give me anything," Damen said.

Laurent took a single step. He was closer to the knife than Damen was, now, but in a fight, Damen knew that he would be able to overpower Laurent with ease. "That's right. I forgot. You like to simply take things. Did you enjoy fucking me?"

Damen moved. He had been trained as a warrior; his reflexes were a lot better than Laurent's.

"Apparently not, if you feel you need a knife to protect you." Laurent sneered. "Don't worry. You weren't that good."

"I'm leaving now," Damen said.

"I would wish you a safe and pleasant journey, but unlike some, I have no stomach for hypocrisy," Laurent said. "I expect to see you again soon. In fact, I look forwards to it."

Damen tried to think of something to say. Nothing came to mind, though. He had done what he had done, and now he would escape this place, and Laurent, and with luck, he would never need to see either again.

Drawing Laurent's knife, he opened the door to deal with the guards.

**Author's Note:**

> posted anonymously May 30th, de-anoned June 12th


End file.
